Ratha Yatra 2016 in Wroclaw – 8th edition

Festival schedule

14.30 – 16.30 Pulling the Ratha Yatra cart by all the participants around Old Town Square with stops for the vegetarian food distribution.

16.30 – 20.30 Plac Solny: Stage program along with serving vegetarian meal in the tents next to the stage.

The tradition

Ratha Yatra Festival, also known as The Festival of Chariots, has centuries long tradition in India. Traditionally, this great religious and cultural event takes place in June. This is when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims arrive at the famous city of Jagannath Puri in the state of Orissa. More and more people from Europe and other continents also participate in this well-known and enjoyed festival.
The city of Jagannath Puri (East India) is famous for its ancient temple and Deities there presiding. They are the unusually shaped figures of Shri Krishna as Lord Jagannath (Master of Universe), His brother Baladev and Their sister Subhadra.

Legend has it that the figures were made by the mythical heavenly sculptor Vishvakarma on the request of Indradyumna, the king of Orissa.
The artist stipulated that no one could see the figures until they had been completed. The impatient king broke that agreement though and entered Vishvakarma’s workshop.At that moment the sculptor disappeared, leaving the roughly hewn chunks of wood.

King Indradyumna, a great devotee of Krishna, requested the unfinished figures to be painted and placed them in a temple specially built for them. Over the millennia the Deities have been worshipped in that form, until the present day.

The person who brought Ratha Yatra Festival to the streets of the West was Shrila Prabhupada A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Hindu spiritual teacher and founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness [ISKCON]. Great chariots with replicas of Jagannath deities have appeared on the streets of Rome, Paris, Brussels, London, Durban, New York, San Francisco or Berlin.

The event is entirely financed with funds and donations raised from individual sponsors and institutions. All interested are invited to participate in creating and organizing this special event, and encouraged to support the Festival financially.

Donations can be sent to the following account:
69 2130 0004 2001 0299 8086 0002
International Society for Krishna Consciousness in Poland
Wrocław Temple
Brodzka Street 157
54-067 Wroclaw